Driving Cues and Coaching

ABSTRACT

A method, medium, and apparatus for educating and reducing risk to inexperienced drivers using vehicles with autonomous navigation systems. Data regarding a driver&#39;s past experience with vehicles and operating environments may be used to proactively warn the driver about a potential danger detected or predicted by the vehicle. An autonomous vehicle may prevent the driver from operating the vehicle under unfamiliar circumstances or from causing a collision. Data regarding a driver&#39;s past experience with vehicles and the safety features thereof may be used to mitigate risk of injury or property damage by selectively activating safety features in a new vehicle which the driver has not previously driven. Data regarding a driver&#39;s past experience with vehicles and safety features thereof may be used to determine a decreased or increased rental rate for a particular vehicle.

FIELD OF ART

The present disclosure relates to autonomous (i.e. self-navigating anddriving) automobiles. More specifically, it relates to methods,software, and apparatuses for improving the technological functionalityof a motorized vehicle by considering a driver's experience level and avehicle's operating environment to determine whether to activateautonomous navigation in response to a danger or challenging situationdetected by the automobile, and restore driver control in response tothe danger or situation passing.

BACKGROUND

Every year, millions of teenagers obtain a provisional driver's licenseor “learner's permit” and begin to drive for the first time. Many otheradults who already have driving experience with small vehicles learn todrive commercial-class vehicles such as tractor-trailers or buses, ormove from another country or climate and must learn to drive underunfamiliar traffic laws or weather conditions. Some new drivers may beelderly or urban drivers who never previously needed to drive but needto learn in response to a move or other change in life circumstances.

During the learning process, the driver may be accompanied by a parentor instructor in the passenger seat, instructing the driver, providingfeedback, and warning about possible dangers. Traditional vehiclesspecialized for driver's education may have an additional brake pedalinstalled for the front passenger to allow a driving instructor to brakethe car to prevent a collision. However, any other intervention totransfer control from the driver to the instructor requires the driverto park the car and trade seats with the instructor.

The risks of property damage or injury as a result of mistakes bydrivers who are still learning can be mitigated by the use of autonomousnavigation systems. Existing autonomous navigation systems automateparallel parking for drivers who might cause a collision if attemptingto park between cars. Existing autonomous navigation systems also detectan unseen car in a blind spot and may take over control to prevent alane change that would lead to a collision. However, existing autonomoussystems do not react to a wide variety of other situations or dangers towhich an autonomous navigation response might be preferable tocontinuing control by an inexperienced driver. Such systems also fail toincorporate educational components, inter alia, that might lead to thedriver improving and better understanding the nature of a dangeroussituation.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some aspects of the disclosure. The summary is not anextensive overview of the disclosure. It is neither intended to identifykey or critical elements of the disclosure nor to delineate the scope ofthe disclosure. The following summary merely presents some concepts ofthe disclosure in a simplified form as a prelude to the descriptionbelow.

Aspects of the disclosure relate to methods, computer-readable media,and apparatuses for training inexperienced drivers in vehicles withautonomous navigation systems. Drivers may be trained to becomeaccustomed to sudden takeover of autonomous navigation by the vehicle,and may also learn to drive a vehicle with less risk of injury orproperty damage if the autonomous vehicle has the capability to preventthe driver from operating the vehicle under unfamiliar circumstances orfrom causing a collision.

Data regarding a driver's past experience with vehicles and operatingenvironments may be used to proactively warn the driver about apotential danger detected or predicted by the vehicle. If the danger issufficiently great, or the driver sufficiently inexperienced, thevehicle may assume autonomous navigation until the danger has subsided.When the vehicle restores manual control to the driver, the vehicle maygenerate a debriefing message to inform the driver why autonomousnavigation was activated, and if the need for autonomous navigation wasavoidable, what steps would have been prudent.

Data regarding a driver's past experience with vehicles and the safetyfeatures thereof may be used to mitigate risk of injury or propertydamage by selectively activating safety features in a new vehicle whichthe driver has not previously driven. Alternatively, the driver may beadvised or warned that safety and navigation features to which thedriver is accustomed are not present in the vehicle, so that the drivermay drive more defensively and not inadvertently cause a collision byrelying on a feature not present.

Data regarding a driver's past experience with vehicles, safety featuresthereof, and operating environments may be used to determine a decreasedor increased rental rate for a particular vehicle, whose safety featuresmay mitigate driver risk which would otherwise exist, or whose lack ofsafety features may elevate driver risk for a driver that may bedependent on safety features from a previously-driven vehicle.

Other features and advantages of the disclosure will be apparent fromthe additional description provided herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present invention and theadvantages thereof may be acquired by referring to the followingdescription in consideration of the accompanying drawings, in which likereference numbers indicate like features, and wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a network environment and computing systems that maybe used to implement aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of the interior and components of an autonomousvehicle, according to one or more aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of the exterior and data input/output connections ofan autonomous vehicle, according to one or more aspects of thedisclosure.

FIG. 4. is a flow diagram illustrating an example method of disablingdriver control over a vehicle in response to a driving condition andrestoring driver control over the vehicle in response to the drivingcondition ceasing, according to one or more aspects of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method of responding toa driver's unfamiliarity with a given vehicle, and using the givenvehicle's features to mitigate differences between the given vehicle andone the driver is familiar with, according to one or more aspects of thedisclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method of setting arental rate for a vehicle based on the driver's experience with thatvehicle, the driver's experience with one or more other vehicles, andthe differences in autonomous features between the vehicle and the oneor more other vehicles, according to one or more aspects of thedisclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In the following description of the various embodiments, reference ismade to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and inwhich is shown by way of illustration, various embodiments of thedisclosure that may be practiced. It is to be understood that otherembodiments may be utilized.

As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art upon reading thefollowing disclosure, various aspects described herein may be embodiedas a method, a computer system, or a computer program product.Accordingly, those aspects may take the form of an entirely hardwareembodiment, an entirely software embodiment or an embodiment combiningsoftware and hardware aspects. Furthermore, such aspects may take theform of a computer program product stored by one or morecomputer-readable storage media having computer-readable program code,or instructions, embodied in or on the storage media. Any suitablecomputer readable storage media may be utilized, including hard disks,CD-ROMs, optical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, and/or anycombination thereof. In addition, various signals representing data orevents as described herein may be transferred between a source and adestination in the form of electromagnetic waves traveling throughsignal-conducting media such as metal wires, optical fibers, and/orwireless transmission media (e.g., air and/or space).

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a computing device (or system) 101in communication system 100 that may be used according to one or moreillustrative embodiments of the disclosure. The device 101 may have aprocessor 103 for controlling overall operation of the device 101 andits associated components, including RAM 105, ROM 107, input/outputmodule 109, and memory 115. The computing device 101, along with one ormore additional devices (e.g., terminals 141, 151) may correspond to anyof multiple systems or devices configured as described herein toidentify a driver of a vehicle, retrieve driver experience parameters,and use telematics and other sensor data to determine whether to assumeautonomous navigation control over a vehicle.

Input/Output (I/O) 109 may include a microphone, keypad, touch screen,and/or stylus through which a user of the computing device 101 mayprovide input, and may also include one or more of a speaker forproviding audio output and a video display device for providing textual,audiovisual and/or graphical output. Software may be stored withinmemory 115 and/or storage to provide instructions to processor 103 forenabling device 101 to perform various functions. For example, memory115 may store software used by the device 101, such as an operatingsystem 117, application programs 119, and an associated internaldatabase 121. Processor 103 and its associated components may allow thecomputing device 101 to execute a series of computer-readableinstructions to identify a driver of a vehicle, retrieve driverexperience parameters, and use telematics and other sensor data todetermine whether to assume autonomous navigation control over avehicle.

The computing device 101 may operate in a networked environment 100supporting connections to one or more remote computers, such asterminals 141 and 151. The terminals 141 and 151 may be personalcomputers (e.g., end-user customer computers), servers (e.g., webservers, database servers), mobile communication devices, portablecomputing devices and the like that include many or all of the elementsdescribed above with respect to the computing device 101. The networkconnections depicted in FIG. 1 include a wide area network (WAN) 129,but may also include other networks such as a Bluetooth connection 133to a nearby computing device 141, or local area network (LAN). When usedin a WAN networking environment, the computing device 101 may include amodem 127 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN129, such as network 131 (e.g., the Internet). It will be appreciatedthat the network connections shown are illustrative and other means ofestablishing a communications link between the computers may be used.The existence of any of various well-known protocols such as TCP/IP,Ethernet, FTP, HTTP and the like is presumed.

Additionally, one or more application programs 119 used by the computingdevice 101 may include computer executable instructions or algorithmsfor identifying a driver of a vehicle, retrieving driver experienceparameters, and using telematics and other sensor data to determinewhether to assume autonomous navigation control over a vehicle, andperforming other related functions as described herein.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of the interior and various components of anautonomous vehicle, according to one or more aspects of the disclosure.

The autonomous vehicle may have a plurality of input and outputinterfaces for a driver.

The driver may take in information about the vehicle's surroundings viaseeing through windshield 201, rear view mirror 202, and side viewmirrors 203. The vehicle itself may be further able to communicate withthe driver via display 204, which may comprise a screen capable ofsimulating a speedometer and odometer, displaying other information, orreceiving user menu selections via a touchscreen. The vehicle may befurther able to communicate with the driver via stereo audio speakers205 built into the doors of the vehicle, or the front or rear of thevehicle.

The autonomous vehicle may be controlled by the driver, when not in anautonomous navigation mode, via the steering wheel 206, accelerator orgas pedal 207, brake pedal 208, clutch 209, gearshift 210, or interiorcontrol buttons 211 (which may control, for example, a radio, a musicplayer, other audio settings, fans, heating, air conditioning, or otherair circulation settings). Display 204 may also comprise a touchscreento allow the driver to tap and select options. The steering wheel 206,gearshift 210, or a touchscreen of display 204 may comprise afingerprint reader that can read a thumb print or other fingerprint toauthenticate the identity of a driver.

The autonomous vehicle may comprise an internal camera that can trackthe head position and eye movement of the driver to determine where thedriver is currently looking and where the limits of the driver's rangeof vision lie. The autonomous vehicle may also comprise an internalmicrophone to allow the vehicle to pick up speech from the driver,respond to verbal commands from the driver, determine whether loud musicor other noise exists inside the vehicle, or otherwise monitor theinterior.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of the exterior and data input/output connections ofan autonomous vehicle.

The autonomous vehicle 300 may comprise external sensors 335, which mayinclude, among other sensing apparatuses, one or more external camerasto view the vehicle's surroundings, one or more external microphones todetect the sound and direction of sirens or of the operation of othervehicles not perceived by an external camera, one or more motiondetection sensors to detect obstacles entering the road, or a radar orsonar emitter and receiver to determine the distance to or relativemotion of objects. The vehicle may also comprise a global positioningsystem (GPS) receiver 310 to determine the current location of thevehicle.

The vehicle may comprise telematics sensors 305 such as a speedometer,an odometer, or on-board diagnostic (OBD) system for tracking thefunctioning of the engine and other systems of the vehicle. Datagathered by these devices may include speed, acceleration, G-forces(i.e., units of acceleration in comparison to normal gravity), distancetraveled, turns performed, engine revolutions per minute, mileage pergallon, or engine damage or malfunctions. Additional data may begathered by a connection to a mobile computing device 141 possessed bythe driver of the car, such as GPS data from a GPS sensor of the mobilecomputing device or acceleration/deceleration/lane change/turn/swervingdata from a multiple-axis accelerometer of the mobile computing device.

The vehicle may also comprise a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communicationsystem 315 for sending information to and receiving information from asimilar communications device in one or more other nearby vehicles 301.The V2V communication systems of two vehicles may communicate directlywith one another, using a near field communications system, or may bothconnect to a centralized network location 302, such as a wireless routeror cell tower, that may route communications between the vehicles.

The headlights 325 of the vehicle may comprise one or more lenses ormirrors that allow focusing of headlight beams much more precisely thanthe traditional settings of “high beams” or “low beams”. For example,the headlights may be able to focus at an angle away from the front-backaxis of the vehicle, so that they can particularly light up an obstacleat the side of the road, or which may enter the road, such as apedestrian, deer, or other animal.

The vehicle may comprise an autonomous control system 330. Theautonomous control system may be directly coupled via actuators to thesteering wheel, brake pedal, and acceleration pedal of the vehicle, andbe capable of causing them to turn or depress without a driver'stouching them or application of force. Alternatively, the autonomouscontrol system may bypass the mechanisms of the steering wheel, brakepedal, and acceleration pedal, allowing axles, the engine, or brake padsto be controlled without the steering wheel, brake pedal, andacceleration pedal being manipulated.

The autonomous control system may be coupled to and receive data from anumber of components and sensors, including but not limited to on-boarddiagnostic system, speedometer, GPS receiver, external cameras, radar,sonar, external microphone, and V2V communications systems, in order todetermine and follow a lane of a road, determine any turns or othermaneuvers necessary to reach a destination, and determine the locationsof other vehicles or obstacles in the road.

A device 100 embodying some aspects as presented herein may connect tomobile computing device 141 or centralized server location 151 in orderto retrieve historical driving data, authentication or permission datafor a particular driver, additional information about the operatingenvironment of the vehicle which has not been picked up by internal orexternal sensors of the vehicle, or updates to the device's software.

The device may connect to the autonomous control system and have theability to issue the autonomous control system a command to beginautonomous navigation or to conclude autonomous navigation. The commandmay comprise further information, such as a command to navigate to aparticular location or a command to avoid a particular obstacle that hasbeen identified in or near the road. The device may also be connected toand have access to data determined by the external sensors, telematicssensors, GPS receiver, and V2V communications receiver, and may be ableto issue commands to a V2V transmitter to communicate information toother vehicles on the road.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method of assumingautonomous control over a vehicle in response to detecting a situationfor which the driver may be unprepared, and restoring manual control tothe driver after the situation has been resolved.

In step 405, the vehicle may recognize a driver who has entered thevehicle and determine that he or she is authorized to control thevehicle. The recognition or authentication of the driver may beperformed by detecting that a unique key fob having a radio transmitterand associated with a particular driver has entered the vehicle, byhaving a driver select a name from a predetermined set of driversauthorized to operate the vehicle, by having the driver sign in using apassword associated with that driver out of the predetermined set of alldrivers authorized to operate the vehicle, by having the driver use amobile phone application that communicates with the vehicle to sign inand uniquely identify the driver, by detecting a thumbprint or otherfingerprint of the driver using a fingerprint scanner in steering wheel206, in a touchscreen of display 204, or of a mobile computing device incommunication with the vehicle, by facial recognition of the driverusing internal cameras of the vehicle, or by voice recognition using oneor more internal microphones of the vehicle.

In step 410, the vehicle may retrieve driver experience parameterscorresponding to the driver from a driver data store. The experienceparameters may be locally stored in a memory module in the vehicle, maybe stored in a mobile computing device possessed by the driver to whichthe vehicle may connect via wireless network, Bluetooth, or other directdata connection, or may be stored at a centralized server location withwhich the vehicle is capable of communicating via a wirelesscommunications device of the vehicle.

The driver experience parameters may comprise total amount of time spentdriving the vehicle, total amount of time spent driving each of one ormore other vehicles, an enumeration of safety features or autonomousfeatures in each of the vehicles driven by the driver, amounts of timespent driving at one or more times of day (such as dawn, daylight, dusk,or nighttime), amounts of time spent driving in one or more weatherconditions (such as rain, snow, sleet, strong wind, hail, thunderstorm,fog, flash flood, extreme cold, extreme heat, or clear weather), amountsof time spent driving on one or more road types (highway driving, urbandriving, suburban driving, rural driving, paved roads, gravel roads, ordirt roads), a history of driving test results (such as grades given bya driving instructor on one or more tasks, or a score given by a drivingsimulation in which the driver participated), and/or a history of thedriver's driving events (such as acceleration events, turns, lanechanges, braking/deceleration events, collisions with stationaryobjects, collisions with other vehicles, reactions to changes in trafficlights, issued tickets, or other legal infractions).

In step 415, the driver may begin driving the vehicle towards adestination. The driver may have input a specific destinationbeforehand, such as by entering an address into a GPS system of thevehicle or of a mobile computing device in order to receive directionsor explicitly inform the vehicle of the intended destination.Alternatively, the vehicle may determine a likely destination based onprevious schedules and behavior of the driver. For example, a drivebeginning at 7:00 am on a Tuesday morning may be assumed to be a trip toa school that the driver attends and travels to daily at that time. Adrive at 4:00 pm on Saturday may be assumed to be a trip to a localshopping center if the driver often visits the shopping center onSaturday afternoons. If the driver is on an interstate and has notindicated a destination, the destination may be assumed to be anoff-ramp often used by the driver, or the nearest off-ramp from theinterstate.

As the driver operates the vehicle, the vehicle may take in data fromthe environment using its various external sensors and communicationsdevices. The vehicle may determine its location via a GPS unit builtinto the vehicle, else associated with the vehicle (e.g., via a user'ssmartphone in the vehicle, or other device in the vehicle's proximity).It may determine external weather conditions via external cameras, or bywirelessly obtaining a current weather report from a meteorological datasource and cross-referencing the report with a GPS reading to determinethe current weather at the vehicle's location. The vehicle may determineexternal light level via external cameras, and may determine either thatthere is too little light to see potential obstacles ahead, or too muchlight, if the sun, another vehicle's headlights, or another bright lightsource is directed towards the driver and may blind the driver. Thevehicle may alternatively determine external light level by computingthe light level from an internal clock and a determined latitude andlongitude of the car to determine the available sunlight at thatlocation. The vehicle may determine qualities of a road on which thevehicle is travelling (such as legal speed limit, average speed oftraffic, traffic density, suggested or cautionary speed of a curve,paving or surfacing material, or number of lanes) by consulting externalcameras and/or telematics sensors of the vehicle, or by determining thevehicle's current location and cross-referencing with a database ofroads or traffic reports. The vehicle may determine whether anytemporary dangers associated with the road are present (such asobstacles, pedestrians, animals, other traffic, other inattentive orunconscious drivers, emergency vehicles, law enforcement vehicles,railroad crossings/trains, potholes, or other road damage) usingexternal cameras.

The vehicle may additionally sense information about the driver's mentalstate, and especially whether the driver is inattentive to the currentstate of the vehicle's surroundings. Inattention may be determined, inone example, by tracking the driver's eye movements or head orientationusing a camera inside the vehicle and determining that it is impossibleor unlikely that the driver would be aware of anything in a particularfield of vision or direction. Inattention may be determined, in anotherexample, by sensing that the driver is manipulating vehicle controlssuch as a radio tuner or volume control of the vehicle. Inattention maybe determined, in yet another example, by sensing that the driver isusing a mobile phone, either via a camera inside the vehicle or by areport from an app of the mobile phone itself. Inattention may bedetermined, in yet another example, based on music or other audiocontent being played by speakers of the vehicle, or a determination maybe made that the audio content will make it difficult for the driver tohear a potential danger outside the vehicle, such as an emergencyvehicle, law enforcement vehicle, another vehicle on the road., or atrain Inattention may be determined, in yet another example, by thedriver's failure to match the speed of traffic, erratic braking andacceleration, failure to respond to green traffic lights, delayedreaction to red or yellow traffic lights, or by erratic or swervingmotion within a lane. The vehicle may additionally determine that thedriver is asleep or losing consciousness, for example by tracking eyemovement, eye closure, drifting out of lane by the driver, or any of theinattention evidence described above.

Data regarding a driver's inattention or unconsciousness may betransmitted via V2V communications to other nearby vehicles to allowthem to warn their drivers or prepare to take evasive maneuvers viaautonomous navigation. V2V communications may also be used to transmitinformation that a current driver is a novice, playing a role analogousto a “student driver” sign but allowing both human drivers andautonomous navigation systems to take into account the driver'sinexperience while driving nearby. V2V communications may also transmitinformation that a driver has been involved in collisions of aparticular type or exhibited reckless behavior in the past. Conversely,the vehicle may receive information regarding the inattention,unconsciousness, inexperience, or reckless behavior of other drivers inorder to prime its own autonomous navigation system for defensivedriving or to warn the driver.

The vehicle may additionally track data regarding the driver's controlover the vehicle (such as acceleration, speed, turns, lane changes,centering within a lane, or braking). Data may be stored to determinewhether the driver is generally improving with respect to smoothacceleration and deceleration, staying centered within a lane,maintaining appropriate speed before and during turns, and generallyavoiding any reckless action.

In decision 420, which may occur many times per second, the vehicle mayutilize the data received from the variety of sources described above toattempt to detect an acute or persistent condition that poses apotential challenge to a driver. If nothing about the road, vehicle,environment, driver, or other vehicles indicates that there is anydanger, the drive continues without interruption.

The detected challenge or condition may include driving in a persistentsituation unfamiliar to the driver, such as dawn/dusk/twilight, blindingglare, nighttime, rain, sleet, hail, snow, strong wind, high-speedroads/highways, high-traffic roads/“urban driving”, gravel or dirtroads, or roads that require a specialized experience to safelytraverse.

The detected challenge or condition may alternatively be a temporaryacute danger, such as an approaching emergency vehicle, an approachinglaw-enforcement vehicle, a train at a railroad crossing, approachingheavy or stopped traffic, an animal, pedestrian, or other non-vehicularobstacle in the road, or a distracted or incapacitated driver in anothernearby vehicle.

As described in the previous paragraphs, the determination that thechallenge exists may be made directly by interpreting data received fromexternal cameras or other sensors of the vehicle, or may be determinedby receiving data about the road, weather, or other traffic from aninformation source from which the existence of the challenge may bederived.

In step 425, the vehicle may alert the driver to the danger or challengeusing one or more visual or auditory cues.

The vehicle may use a variety of displays to give visual cues to informthe driver about the danger or challenge. For example, a light in one ofthe rear or side view mirrors 202 and 203 may be turned on or blink toindicate a direction of a vehicle in the driver's blind spot, thedirection of an emergency vehicle that may otherwise be invisible orinaudible to the driver, or the direction of another obstacle or hazard.Headlights 325 of the car may be able to focus beams directly on anobstacle such as a deer, pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist, or stoppedvehicle in the road ahead.

The vehicle may generate a heads-up display (HUD) intended to overlay ascreen and highlight elements therein or convey other information to thedriver. The windshield 201 may be used as a screen to display the HUDeither via a built-in display or via a display projected onto orreflected off of the inner surface of the windshield. The dashboarddisplay 204 of the vehicle may also be used to display the HUD. The HUDmay also be transmitted to and displayed by a MICROSOFT™ HoloLens™,GOOGLE™ Glass™, or other optical device used by the driver whiledriving.

A HUD may visually highlight a danger (such as a deer, other animal,pedestrian, bicyclist, motorcyclist, train, pothole, or other inanimateobject) with a colored or flashing overlay to indicate its location tothe driver in real time. The HUD may also display information related todangers outside of the field of vision covered by the HUD, such asindicators that a vehicle is behind the driver or in the driver's blindspot. The HUD may also display other operation data of the vehicle, suchas the current speed, whether the vehicle is travelling above the speedlimit for the road the driver is on, remaining fuel range, distance todestination, etc.

The vehicle may use one or more auditory cues to inform the driver aboutthe danger or challenge. For example, a chime or other auditory effectcould be played to indicate that a danger has been sensed ahead, such asstopped traffic, a train approaching a railroad crossing, or an obstacleentering the road (such as a deer, other animal, pedestrian, bicyclist,motorcyclist, pothole, or other inanimate object). Audio cues may takeadvantage of the stereo, “surround sound”, or other multiple-speakerfeatures of the vehicle to indicate the direction from which a challengemay come. A cue may indicate the direction of another vehicle in thedriver's blind spot by playing only from a left or right speaker of thevehicle. A cue may indicate the direction of an emergency vehicle or lawenforcement vehicle via the balance of the sound emitted from the left,right, front, or rear speakers, and may amplify the sound of theemergency vehicle's siren via the speakers if the siren is too quiet tobe heard within the vehicle. The vehicle may, at the time a cue isplayed, decrease the volume of or disable the vehicle's radio or musicplayer to ensure that the cue is audible. The vehicle may, instead of achime, use the speakers to amplify the sound of a siren, train whistle,or car or motorcycle engine that might otherwise be unheard due to theinsulation of the vehicle.

Instead of a chime or other cue, the speakers may be used to playpre-recorded or synthesized speech warning the driver about the acute orpersistent condition. For example, the speakers may play a message that“You are approaching stopped traffic. Please decelerate.” or “You arepulling onto a highway on-ramp; automatic navigation will begin untilyou leave the highway.”

In decision 430, the vehicle may consult the previously retrieved driverdata and make a determination whether to assume control and autonomousnavigation.

The determination may be based in part on the driver's experience withthe detected danger or situation. If the current drive is the driver'sfirst encounter with the situation, the vehicle may automatically assumeautonomous navigation, such as by taking control as soon as falling oraccumulated snow is detected. Alternatively, the vehicle may react tothe driver's first encounter by assuming control only if the drivertakes a predetermined reckless action, such as speeding or followinganother vehicle too closely while snow is falling. Alternatively, thevehicle may react to the driver's first encounter by assuming control ata predetermined interval sooner than the vehicle would intervene if amore experienced driver were driving, such as by applying brakes iftraffic is stopped five seconds ahead in the snow, when with a moreexperienced driver, brakes would not be applied until traffic is fourseconds ahead, trusting more that the driver will apply brakes himselfor herself. As a driver's experience increases, the vehicle may waitlonger before assuming autonomous control. For example, while thevehicle might assume control in response to the driver's first encounterwith snow, a third encounter with snowfall might not trigger autonomouscontrol until snow begins accumulating on the road. The determinationmay additionally be based on a total experience level of the driver(such as allowing the driver to maintain control in a given situation ifthe driver has more than one year of total driving experience, but notif the driver has one month of driving experience).

The determination may be based in part on a determined severity level ofthe danger. For example, a possible collision with an emergency vehicle,law enforcement vehicle, train, pedestrian, or large animal like a deermay be assigned a high severity. Blinding light or accumulated snow mayalso be assigned a high severity due to the risk of a subsequent crashor leaving the road. Driving near a determined reckless driver or inheavy rain or snowfall without accumulation may be assigned a mediumseverity. Driving on a highway without dense traffic, on a gravel ordirt road, or at night may be assigned a low severity.

The vehicle may take control without delay under all circumstances wherethe severity is high and the driver is not experienced with the danger.Alternatively, the vehicle may assume control at a predeterminedinterval sooner than the vehicle would intervene for a medium or lowseverity threat.

The determination may also be based on the imminence of the danger. Forexample, the autonomous navigation may take over if it is determinedthat a deer or pedestrian has entered the road or is at the edge of theroad, but not if the deer or pedestrian is a predetermined distance fromthe edge of the road and likely cannot move into the vehicle's path intime to cause a collision. In another embodiment, the autonomousnavigation may take over if it is determined that an inattentive driverin another vehicle is no longer centered in his lane, but not if thedriver is inattentive but remains centered. In another embodiment, theautonomous navigation may take over if the vehicle is speeding whiletraffic is present less than three seconds ahead on the road, but not ifthe traffic is more than five seconds ahead.

At the time the vehicle determines that autonomous navigation will beengaged, the vehicle may warn the driver (if engagement is not necessaryfor a number of seconds) or immediately engage without warning if thedanger is imminent. Warning may be performed via a display or HUDgenerated in step 425, or by a chime or message played over thevehicle's speakers. The vehicle may engage autonomous navigation andcontinue towards the determined or predicted destination while using oneor more or all possible safety features and defensive driving to keepthe driver safe from the challenge that the autonomous system hasdetermined that the driver is unprepared for and poses unacceptablerisk.

In an example embodiment, vehicle 300 may be equipped with device 100,which may make determinations whether to assume autonomous control, andexternal cameras which feed data to both device 100 and the autonomouscontrol system. After having previously determined that a driver hasonly been driving for two weeks and has never driven a vehicle at night,the vehicle may continuously monitor light level and prepare to issue awarning that headlights should be activated. The vehicle may further usethe external cameras to watch for hazards in or beside the road, andupon detecting a hazard, focus headlights upon it and issue an audiowarning via the speakers that the hazard has been detected. The vehiclemay determine whether the driver is appropriately reacting to thehazard, by slowing down and/or adjusting position within the lane toavoid it. If the driver does not slow down or adjust, the vehicle maywarn the driver that autonomous mode will be activated, and device 100may issue the command to autonomous control system 330. The vehicle maythen take evasive action to avoid the hazard. The vehicle may furthermonitor the vehicle's speed and force the driver to slow down byassuming control over the accelerator if the vehicle's speed exceedssafe driving speeds at the current light level.

In another example embodiment, after having previously determined that adriver has received multiple speeding tickets or exceeded the speedlimit in the past, device 100 may monitor the current road via data fromGPS and/or external cameras of the vehicle. In response to the driverpulling onto a highway, the vehicle may warn the driver via audiomessage that the vehicle will be autonomously navigated if the driverexceeds the speed limit and the average speed of surrounding traffic.Device 100 may monitor the surrounding traffic using data from V2Vcommunications and/or external cameras, and may monitor the vehicle'sspeed via a connection to the telematics sensors/on-board diagnostics,and may determine that the driver is exceeding both the speed limit andthe speed of surrounding traffic. In response, device 100 may issue acommand to autonomous control system 330 to navigate the vehicle to thenearest off-ramp from the highway, or to a particular off-ramp furtherahead, and may not restore control of the vehicle to the driver untilthe vehicle is no longer on the highway.

When switching to autonomous navigation, the vehicle may assume controlover steering, but not acceleration or braking, over acceleration orbraking only and not steering, or total control over the vehicle, ascircumstances require to avoid a potential collision or reduce risk offuture collision.

In decision 440, which may be performed many times per second or at alonger interval, such as once per second, once per thirty seconds, onceper minute, or once per five minutes, the vehicle may assess thepreviously detected situation as the vehicle drives towards thedestination, and determine whether the condition is still in effect. Forexample, the vehicle may determine via data from an external camera orreceived weather data that rain, sleet, snow, hail, or otherprecipitation are no longer falling in the vicinity of the vehicle orare not accumulating on this portion of the road. The vehicle maydetermine that the level of ambient light has increased via data fromexternal cameras or the passage of time determined since dawn. Thevehicle may have navigated itself towards a previously determineddestination until it is no longer in an urban driving environment, on ahighway, or on a dirt or gravel road, as determined by GPS datacross-referenced with received data on road types, or via externalcameras. The vehicle may determine that an emergency vehicle, train,distracted driver in another vehicle, or other potential collision riskis no longer nearby, based on data from an external camera, externalmicrophone, or V2V data provided from the other vehicle. The vehicle maydetermine that the driver is attentive and no longer has dividedattention or loss of consciousness, based on the eye movements oractions picked up by an internal camera of the vehicle.

Alternatively, the vehicle may determine that it has reached itsdestination, even if the previously detected situation has not ended. Inthis case, the vehicle may stop at the destination in order to returncontrol to the driver for parking.

In step 445, the vehicle may inform the driver that it will endautomatic navigation, and in response to a confirmation from the driver,do so and allow manual control. The message informing the driver may bedelivered via any of the methods used to warn the driver that theautonomous navigation would be activated. The driver may provideconfirmation by voice command, by pressing a button inside the vehicle,by selecting a touchscreen option inside the vehicle, or any other inputmethod that may be available. The driver may then continue to controlthe vehicle unless or until another condition is detected in response towhich the autonomous navigation is re-engaged, or the destination isreached.

In step 450, the vehicle may debrief the driver after the drive iscomplete. The debriefing may include advice for handling drivingconditions that were encountered during the drive in the future andadvice for actions which the driver could take in the future to avoidthe vehicle being forced to assume autonomous control. For example, thedriver may be advised to slow down when snow begins accumulating in theroad, to allow a greater following distance from vehicles ahead, toactivate or deactivate high beam headlights to ensure obstacles arevisible without blinding other drivers, or to accelerate and brake moresmoothly during stop-and-go high-density traffic. The debriefing mayinclude data regarding improvement of the driver on one or moreobjective criteria such as time spent centered in the lane, smoothnessof acceleration and braking, distance maintained from vehicles ahead, orother factors of good driving practice and etiquette.

The debriefing may further include information comparing the driver toother drivers similarly situated, comparing the driver to those ofsimilar age or experience, and highlighting where the driver's strengthsand weaknesses lie. For example, a driver may be told that his responsetime to a yellow traffic light is at a certain percentile for hisdemographic cohort, that he drives a certain number of miles per hourfaster in rainy conditions than the average member of his demographiccohort, that his total time spent driving is greater than average forhis demographic cohort, or that he maintains better eye contact with theroad than a certain fraction of his demographic cohort.

As a result, the driver may gain experience with low personal orproperty risk, improve skills, and be better able to handle challengesin the future without interference from autonomous navigation or inother vehicles which lack autonomous navigation features. The debriefingprocess may further be accompanied by updating the driver experienceparameters with the actions taken and time spent driving by the driverduring the trip, as well as the conditions under which the drivingoccurred.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method of responding toa driver's unfamiliarity with a given vehicle, and using the givenvehicle's features to mitigate differences between the given vehicle andone the driver is familiar with.

In step 500, a driver may be identified by and begin driving a vehicledifferent from one the driver has previously had experience. The currentvehicle may have a number of autonomous features, including but notlimited to automatic braking in response to stopped or slowed trafficahead, automatic prevention of lane change when another vehicle is in ablind spot, automatic takeover of navigation in response to changingweather conditions or unexpected driving situations, automatichighlighting or cueing of obstacles, dangers, or emergency vehicles, orautomatic takeover of navigation in response to loss of consciousness orloss of attention.

In step 505, the vehicle may obtain driver experience parameters from adriver data store, particularly the experience levels of the driver withthe current vehicle and with other vehicles previously driven by thedriver. The driver's history may also be retrieved, including previouscollisions, traffic infractions, or situations in which an autonomoussafety system was activated in order to protect against a collision orinfraction.

In step 510, the vehicle may obtain data from a database of car safetyfeatures, determining the set of features with which the driver wouldhave experience based on the driver's history, and how much experiencethe driver has with each. The driver experience parameters may beconsulted to determine whether each of the vehicle safety features hasin fact been activated for the driver in the past, or were present butnever activated. If a given safety feature has never been experienced orused by the driver, it may be disregarded despite being present in avehicle with which the driver has extensive experience.

In step 515, the vehicle may inform the driver how the current vehicle'ssafety or autonomous features differ from previous vehicles operated bythe driver. The message may be conveyed by a display in the vehicle, bysynthesized speech audio played over the vehicle's speakers, projectedonto the windshield, or via another interface available to the driver.For example, the vehicle may inform the driver that the current vehiclelacks autonomous navigation takeover in response to an attempt to changelanes while a vehicle is in the driver's blind spot, or lacks autonomousnavigation takeover in response to heavy snowfall. The information mayinclude a reference to the driver's history, such as an audio messagethat says “You have attempted to change lanes in the past when anothervehicle was in your blind spot; this vehicle cannot stop you fromchanging lanes even if there is danger.”

Alternatively, the vehicle may inform the driver that additional safetyfeatures that the driver has not previously experienced are present andmay be activated without warning or with minimal warning, in order tominimize the driver's alarm if features such as autonomous navigationtakeover are engaged.

In step 520, the vehicle may determine that one or more features of thevehicle may be used to mitigate risk created by driver reliance on asafety feature not present. For example, a lack of autonomous navigationtakeover in response to an attempt to change lanes while a vehicle is inthe driver's blind spot may be mitigated by a windshield-displayed HUDthat indicates the presence of a vehicle in the blind spot. A lack ofautonomous navigation takeover in response to heavy snowfall may bemitigated by a display HUD with a weather report or by adjustment to theanti-lock braking system and other braking settings to make them moreforgiving to an inexperienced driver in snow. A lack automatic brakingin response to stopped or slowed traffic ahead may be mitigated by adisplay HUD that displays the distance to or number of seconds untilcollision with a vehicle ahead if brakes are not activated, or an audiocue which signifies approaching traffic too rapidly with beeps thatincrease in pitch or rate as a collision becomes imminent.

In step 525, after a drive with mitigating actions has been completed,the driver experience parameters may be updated to include theadditional experience with the current vehicle and its different sets ofsafety features and settings. Future trips taken in the same vehicle maythen cause fewer warnings or advisories to be displayed, as the driveris determined to become more and more accustomed to the vehicle.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram illustrating an example method of setting arental rate for a vehicle

In step 600, a driver may request rental of a vehicle to drive for aperiod of time such as one day, two or more days, or a long-term lease.The request may be made via an oral request at a rental establishment,via telephone, via a website interface, or via a mobile phoneapplication. The driver may provide personally identifying informationthat allows an automated process running on a computer at the rentalestablishment or a customer service telephone center, or on a serverfacilitating the website or mobile phone application, to retrieve driverexperience parameters associated with the driver from a data store.

In step 605, the driver's experience parameters may be retrieved from adata store. In particular, parameters related to time spent driving oneor more previous autonomous or non-autonomous vehicles may be retrieved.Any experience driving the same model of vehicle in the past may also beretrieved. Parameters may also be retrieved relating to previous drivingbehavior, including previous collisions, traffic infractions, orreckless behavior such as running red lights, accelerating throughyellow lights, abrupt lane changes, or excessive braking andacceleration. Parameters may also be retrieved relating to previousdriving experience in weather or road conditions foreseeable at the timeand place of the rental. For example, if the driver requests a vehiclein the Midwest during winter, experience driving in the snow may beretrieved. If renting a vehicle overnight in downtown New York City,experience with urban and night driving may be retrieved. Local weatherpredictions may be consulted to see if weather-related driver experienceparameters are likely to be relevant during the period of the rental.

In step 610, autonomous navigation or safety features of the requestedrental vehicle may be obtained and considered in deciding whether thedriver represents an increased or mitigated risk of damage to thevehicle.

Risk may be increased if, for example, the vehicle lacks safety ornavigation features which the driver is accustomed to from previousdriving experience in other vehicles. The vehicle may lack automaticbraking in response to stopped or slowed traffic ahead, automaticprevention of lane change when another vehicle is in a blind spot,automatic takeover of navigation in response to changing weatherconditions or unexpected driving situations, automatic highlighting orcueing of obstacles or emergency vehicles, or automatic takeover inresponse to loss of consciousness or loss of attention. Risk may also beincreased if the driver is known to lack experience in the local drivingconditions such as urban roads, highways, snow, rain, sleet, hail,twilight, or darkness. Risk may be increased in response to previouscollisions, traffic infractions, or reckless behavior such as runningred lights, accelerating through yellow lights, abrupt lane changes, orexcessive braking and acceleration.

Risk may be decreased or mitigated if, for example, the vehicle hasadditional safety features beyond those with which the driver hasexperience. The vehicle may be able to assume control over navigation inresponse to sensed dangers in order to avoid a collision or handle apersistent condition with which the driver is unfamiliar. Previousreckless behavior or infractions by the driver may be mitigated if thevehicle's autonomous features make the reckless behavior or infractionimpossible to perform in the vehicle. Risk may be decreased if thedriver is accustomed to vehicles with similar safety and autonomousfeatures to those of the requested vehicle.

In step 615, a rental rate for the vehicle may be determined based on,among other factors, the value of the vehicle, the length of the rental,one or more demographic characteristics of the driver including age, theretrieved driver experience parameters, and the risk increase ordecrease presented by the requested vehicle's features with respect tothe driver.

For example, a base rental rate may be determined based on the driver'sage, number of years of driving experience, history of trafficinfractions, value of the car, and prevalence of vehicle damage inrentals from a particular location.

The base rental rate may then be increased in response to adetermination that there is a risk increase from a driver who lacksexperience driving in particular environments near the rental location.The base rental rate may be increased in response to a determinationthat the driver is accustomed to or has relied upon autonomous safetyfeatures in the past (such as automatic braking in response to stoppedor slowed traffic ahead, automatic prevention of lane change whenanother vehicle is in a blind spot, automatic takeover of navigation inresponse to changing weather conditions or unexpected drivingsituations, automatic highlighting or cueing of obstacles, dangers, oremergency vehicles, or automatic takeover of navigation in response toloss of consciousness or loss of attention), but that those features arenot present in the requested vehicle. The base rental rate may beincrease in response to a determination that historical driving datastored in the driver experience parameters, even if not recording atraffic infraction, indicates recklessness that may be predictive of afuture collision.

The base rental rate may be decreased in response to a determinationthat the requested vehicle has several or all safety features to whichthe driver is accustomed, or in response to a determination that thevehicle contains additional or more advanced versions of safety featuresthan those to which a driver is accustomed. The base rental rate may bedecreased in response to a determination that the driver has a greatdeal of experience in the area or climate of the rental location, suchas a broad experience of driving in the snow when renting in a snowyarea in winter, or a broad experience of urban driving when renting avehicle in the downtown area of a city.

The increased or decreased risk may be expressed as a number, such as adecimal value between 0.50 and 10.00, and multiplied by a base rentalrate determined without consulting the driver experience parameters inorder to determine a final rental rate.

In step 620, the final rental rate may be communicated to the driver.The communication may be oral, written, transmitted to a personalcomputer of the driver, or transmitted to a mobile computing device ormobile app used by the driver. The communication may be accompanied byan explanation of the factors determined in step 610 that affect therental rate for the driver particularly, and may include informationregarding how the factors would change if renting a vehicle havingdifferent autonomous and safety features than those of the requestedvehicle.

While the aspects described herein have been discussed with respect tospecific examples including various modes of carrying out aspects of thedisclosure, those skilled in the art will appreciate that there arenumerous variations and permutations of the above described systems andtechniques that fall within the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. An autonomous vehicle, comprising: a steering wheel; a brake pedal;an acceleration pedal; a data store storing driver experienceparameters; an autonomous control system configured to navigate theautonomous vehicle by controlling a speed and direction of theautonomous vehicle; and a driving mode switching component configured toswitch between a manual driving mode, wherein the autonomous vehicle iscontrolled by the steering wheel, brake pedal, and acceleration pedal,and an autonomous driving mode, wherein the autonomous control systemengages in autonomous navigation, and wherein the autonomous vehicleperforms steps comprising: determining, by the autonomous vehicle, anidentity of a driver of the autonomous vehicle; receiving, by theautonomous vehicle and from the data store, a plurality of driverexperience parameters associated with the driver; detecting, by one ormore sensors of the autonomous vehicle, a driving condition presenting arisk of personal or property damage; and switching, by the driving modeswitching component, from the manual driving mode to the autonomousdriving mode based at least in part on the plurality of driverexperience parameters and the driving condition.
 2. The autonomousvehicle of claim 1, wherein the autonomous vehicle further performssteps comprising: detecting, by one or more sensors of the autonomousvehicle, that the driving condition has ended; and switching, by thedriving mode switching component, from the autonomous driving mode tothe manual driving mode.
 3. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1, whereinthe autonomous vehicle further performs steps comprising: detecting, byone or more sensors of the autonomous vehicle, that the autonomousvehicle has arrived at a predetermined destination; and switching, bythe driving mode switching component, from the autonomous driving modeto the manual driving mode.
 4. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1,wherein the one or more sensors of the autonomous vehicle comprise anexternal camera, and the driving condition is one of precipitation orinappropriate light level.
 5. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1, whereinthe one or more sensors of the autonomous vehicle comprise an internalcamera, and the driving condition is inattention of the driver.
 6. Theautonomous vehicle of claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors of theautonomous vehicle comprise a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system,and the driving condition is an increased risk represented by behavioror experience of another driver.
 7. A method, comprising: determining,by an autonomous vehicle, the identity of a driver of the autonomousvehicle; receiving, by the autonomous vehicle and from a data store, aplurality of driver experience parameters associated with the driver;detecting, by one or more sensors of the autonomous vehicle, a drivingcondition presenting a risk of personal or property damage; and based atleast in part on the plurality of driver experience parameters and thedriving condition, engaging autonomous navigation of the autonomousvehicle and ending control by the driver over the autonomous vehicle. 8.The method of claim 7, further comprising: detecting that the drivingcondition has ended; and deactivating the autonomous navigation andreturning control over the autonomous vehicle to the driver.
 9. Themethod of claim 7, wherein the driving condition is one of precipitationor light level outside the autonomous vehicle.
 10. The method of claim7, wherein the driving condition is the autonomous vehicle traveling onone of a highway or a road in an urban area.
 11. The method of claim 7,wherein the driving condition is inattention of the driver.
 12. Themethod of claim 7, further comprising: updating one or more of theplurality of driver experience parameters; and transmitting the one ormore of the plurality of driver experience parameters to the data store.13. The method of claim 7, further comprising informing the driver of areason for engaging autonomous navigation of the autonomous vehicleafter a determination is made to engage autonomous navigation.
 14. Anon-transitory medium comprising instructions that, when performed by aprocessor of an autonomous vehicle, cause the autonomous vehicle to:determine the identity of a driver of an autonomous vehicle; receive,from a data store, a plurality of driver experience parametersassociated with the driver; detect, using sensor data received from oneor more sensors of the autonomous vehicle, a driving conditionpresenting a risk of personal or property damage; and based at least inpart on the plurality of driver experience parameters and the drivingcondition, engage autonomous navigation of the autonomous vehicle andend control by the driver over the autonomous vehicle.
 15. Thenon-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions, whenperformed, further cause the autonomous vehicle to: detect that thedriving condition has ended; and deactivate the autonomous navigationand return control over the autonomous vehicle to the driver.
 16. Thenon-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions, whenperformed, further cause the autonomous vehicle to: update one or moreof the plurality of driver experience parameters; and transmit the oneor more of the plurality of driver experience parameters to the datastore.
 17. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein the drivingcondition is precipitation outside the autonomous vehicle.
 18. Thenon-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein the driving condition is theautonomous vehicle traveling on one of a highway and a road in an urbanarea.
 19. The non-transitory medium of claim 14, wherein the drivingcondition is inattention of the driver.
 20. The non-transitory medium ofclaim 14, wherein the instructions, when performed, further cause theautonomous vehicle to inform the driver of a reason for engagingautonomous navigation of the autonomous vehicle after a determination ismade to engage autonomous navigation.